18th century… “Fraud, Bribery, and Corruption”: Joseph Ritson’s Account of an 18th-Century General Election 11 Dec 201911 Dec 2019 By Stephen Basdeo As a general election is looming here in the UK, I thought I might give readers a glimpse into elections of the eighteenth century, as seen through…
18th century… Joseph Ritson the Radical 5 Sep 20195 Sep 2019 By Stephen Basdeo Joseph Ritson was born in Stockton-on-Tees in 1752 to a poor yeoman family. As a child, he attended the local Unitarian Sunday School where his talents intellectual…
18th century… “Confusion, horror, and bloodshed”: Joseph Ritson’s Eye-Witness Account of the Gordon Riots in 1780 12 Jan 201912 Jan 2019 By Stephen Basdeo Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have noticed that across the English Channel in France, quite a few people are very, very annoyed…
1370… Visions of “Piers Plowman” in the 18th Century 11 Dec 201713 Dec 2017 The best thing about having a Robin Hood theme for this blog is that it allows me to legitimately write about both crime and medievalism (medievalism, as opposed to medieval…
1381… ‘Robin Hood Should Bring Us John Ball’: The Outlaw in William Morris’ “A Dream of John Ball” (1886) 4 Dec 2016 I am currently working on two projects: my PhD thesis examining post-medieval representations of Robin Hood, and my forthcoming book examining the post-medieval cultural history of Wat Tyler, the leader…
11th Century… Radical Robin Hood: “Little John and Will Scarlet” (1865) 14 Oct 2016 Introduction With the exception of Pierce Egan the Younger’s Robin Hood and Little John, or, The Merry Men of Sherwood Forest (1838-40), Robin Hood penny dreadfuls have generated very little…
